The head of the 55-nation Organisation for Security...

The head of the 55-nation Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) on called on Uzbekistan to refrain from further use of the death penalty following warnings that the ex-Soviet republic has secretly executed prisoners awaiting appeal hearings by a UN committee. "I asked and made a plea for a general moratorium on the death penalty and have not linked that plea to specific cases," Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, who is Dutch foreign minister and current chairman-in-office of the OSCE, said after meeting Uzbek Foreign Minister Sadyk Safayev. "I meant a total moratorium," Scheffer told reporters. But the Uzbek foreign minister played down the chances of a moratorium. "The United Nations can't impose a moratorium. We have to be clear in our evaluations so that everything is done in accordance with domestic legislation," Safayev said while meeting journalists alongside Scheffer.